Inflatable safety shirt



1947- J. H. RIPLEY INFLATABLE SAFETY SHIRT Filed Oct. 14, 1944 7m w W Patented Aug. 5, 1947 UNITED STATES I OFFICE f INFLATABLE sArn-rrsnmr James H. Ripley, San Francisco, Calif. I

Application October 14, 1944, Serial No. 558,683

1 Claim. 1

This inv ntion relates to an inflatable safety device for the emergency use of seamen, boatmen, duck hunters, swimmers, and others who are likely to become subjected to the danger of accidental drowning; said safety device serving the purpose of providing added buoyancy while in the water.

There are several different kinds of safety devices that are made for the emergency use of swimmers and other to minimize the danger of drowning. Most of these are too bulky to be worn constantly (for instance, the donut type) and even when made up in the form of jackets or belts containing buoyant members, they are still uncomfortable and awkward to wear. Safety devices consisting of compact inflatable rubber envelopes containing easily broken metal cartridges or a compressed gas have also been made but such devices as heretofore constructed have not been entirely satisfactory for a number of reasons.

I have invented a safety device that overcomes the disadvantages of the various prior devices and which is safe, easily made, and highly eflicient.

The primary object of the invention is the provision of a garment, preferably in the form of a, shirt, that may be worn at any time like an ordinary shirt. It is made preferably of ordinary shirt cloth and does not contain any rub-- berized fabric cloth which, due to its lack of porousness, would be unsanitary, uncomfortable and not adapted to being worn all day long; yet it is provided with inflatable sustaining portions whereby the wearer is maintained afloat in the water.

A further object of the device is the provision of a safety shirt which in its outer appearance is hardly distinguishable from an ordinary shirt and which is provided with air-receiving portions into which inflating air may be forced by means of the mouth and lungs of the wearer.

Further objects of the instant invention reside in any novel feature of construction or operation or novel combination of parts present in the embodiment of the invention described and shown in the accompanying drawings within the scope of the appended claim irrespectiv of other specific statements as to the scope of the invention contained herein.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a front elevational view of a preferred embodiment of my invention;

Figure 2 is a sectional view on the line 2--2 of Figure 1; and

Figure 3 is a sectional view on the line 33 of Figure 1.

Similar numerals refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

By referring to the drawing, it will be at once apparent that the device broadly consists of a shirt I substantially the usual form and provided with a second layer 2 of shirt cloths which is attached to the inner side of the shirt 2 by a seam 8 above the waist line, by a seam 9 at the collar or neck portion of the shirt I and by substantially vertical seams 1, which may be made as continuations of seam 9. In this way, an allround closed inflatable space is obtained above the waist line, which may be subdivided by additional seams (not shown) into an inflatabl back space 6 and into inflatable breast spaces 4 and 5, but which also can be left undivided as in the instance shown. A hose 3, which can also be made of shirt cloth or of any other suitable material, is attached to an aperture in the layer 2 and is normally worn at the inner side of the shirt I so that it cannot be seen. The hose 3 is solong that its free end portion can be put into the mouth of a person wearing the shirt I, so that inflating air may be forced through it by means of the mouth and lungs of the wearer.

While ordinary shirt cloth is more or less porous when it is dry, its porousness is considerably reduced by immersion in water. Thus, as soon as the shirt has become wet, after its wearer has immersed in water, it will hold the air blown into the inflatable space or spaces 4,-=5 and '6 through the hose 3 and will keep its wearer safely afloat. The hose 3 can be provided with any suitable non-return-check valve, not shown, or it can conveniently be kept in the wearer's mouth while afloat, or he can press it between his fingers or knot it so that no air will escape. Practical tests of this safety shirt have shown that a comparatively small quantity .of air at a very low pressure within the inflatable space will keep a person safely afloat, particularly in sea water, and that hardly any air can escape at the low pressure used through ordinary wet shirt cloth.

While there has been shown and described and pointed out the fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to a single modification, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the device illustrated and in its operation may be made .by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. It

is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the following claim.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent in the United States is:

An inflatable safety shirt comprising two layers of ordinary shirt cloth which form the upper front and back portions of the shirt above the waist line; seams connecting the edges of said layers to each other at the waist line, at the lower collar edge and at the arm holes in such a manner as to obtain an all-round closed inflatable space between said layers; a shirt formed of a single layer of ordinary shirt cloth extending downwardly from the waist line seam and connected to the latter; an arm formed of a single layer of shirt cloth attached to each of the 15 arm hole seams, and a hose formed of shirt cloth attached to an aperture in the inner layer of the upper front portion of the shirt.

JAMES H. RIPLEY.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,419,272 Kolberg June 13, 1922 977,065 Berry Nov. 29, 1910 1,245,033 Ross Oct. 30, 1917 

